Max Vidau battled his way to seventh place in his debut round of the Dunlop Super2 Series, fighting back from a faultless accident in race one and power steering failure in qualifying for race two.
After qualifying 10th for his maiden race in the category, Vidau was classified in 10th in a race that failed to produce a single completed green flag lap. A pileup at The Cutting left Vidau with nowhere to go, but fortunately the resulting red flag saw the race backdated and results taken from the end of lap five.
The Anderson Motorsport crew worked hard to complete repairs on the Tyrepower Mustang in time for race two qualifying on Sunday morning. After setting the fastest first sector of the session, Vidau lost power steering across the top of the Mountain which greatly affected the handling of the car and left Vidau to qualify out of position in 12th for race two.
A slow car in front off the start cost Vidau two spots early in the 40-minute race, but quick work saw Vidau slice his way back to his starting position before the first two laps were completed. The march forward continued as the #17 posted times good enough for a spot in the top five, and Vidau rose up to 10th by the time a Safety Car was called during lap four.
The race only saw another couple of green flags after the restart, in which Vidau picked off another three places to finish in seventh place – up seven spots from his position early on in the race.
The results from race one and two combine to put Vidau ninth in the Championship Standings, with five rounds still to come in his maiden Super2 season.
Round two takes place as part of the Perth SuperSprint, from May 17-19.
Quotes:
Max Vidau – #17 Tyrepower Mustang
“Coming in to the weekend after the pre-season test I was interested to see where we stood, and now I’m a lot more comfortable with where everything is at,” said Vidau.
“I think we’ll be a different outfit rolling in to Perth, I’m more in tune with the car and the team understand a lot more about how I operate and we can really refine everything for round two onwards.
“We showed pace in every session and our second race could have been much different, if not for the power steering problem in qualifying. In clean air we were as fast as anyone, but obviously that’s hard to come by deep in the pack. We were looking after the tyre and just starting to come on strong when the Safety Car was called.
“It was good to make some moves in both races and know we can move forward when it’s required. In Porsche racing the field is super aggressive and the ruling for overtaking is very clean, so I was able apply that in the Supercar and just pounce on any mistakes in front.
“We’ll do another test day before Perth, which I’m really excited for. The team have got some changes that will make the car more to my liking, and work on our race starts a bit as well. It’s a big adjustment from the Porsche method, launching these cars.
“I’ve got a lot of driver coaching and engineering to do in New Zealand, and in Sprint Challenge as well to keep me busy,” concluded Vidau.
